MMACA: Signing of Free Trade Agreement between European Union and Vietnam, supported by Romania

A trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Vietnam eliminating a significant number of custom taxes will bring new advantages to the business milieus in these two areas, the Ministry for Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship (MMACA), informed on Thursday in a press release to AGERPRES.

The signing of the trade agreement and the organisation in Bucharest of a Romanian-Vietnamese business forum were the main topics approached at today's [Thursday] meeting between the Minister for Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship, Stefan-Radu Oprea, and the Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Romania, Dang Tran Phong.

The economic forum is being organised on the sidelines of the visit in Bucharest of Prime Minister Bguyen Xuan Phuc, who is answering thus to an invitation extended by the Romanian PM Viorica Dancila, with important Vietnamese companies to participate, as they will be on an economic mission in Romania on April 14-16.

"The two officials appreciated the concrete cooperation opportunities, in fields of common interest such as: energy, oil and gas, car industry and IT. The entrepreneurs who will accompany the Vietnamese PM will also have the chance to have some B2B meetings under the Romanian-Vietnamese business forum, to be organised in April with the support of the chambers of commerce and industry of the two countries. At the same meeting, Minister Oprea assured the Vietnamese diplomat of Romania's support for the signing of the Free Trade Agreement. This topic is a priority of the Romanian presidency of the Council of EU and it was also included with the agenda of the informal meeting of trade ministers that took place in February this year in Bucharest. The Romanian official invited, in this context, the Vietnamese partners, to join the message sent by Romania to the European business community to promote an international trade framework based on rules," reads the same press release.

According to the official data, on December 31 2018, the value of bilateral trade exchanges between Romania and Vietnam reached 214.9 million US dollars, down 5.32 per cent compared with the same period of 2017.

Moreover, exports accounted for 45.05 million US dollars and imports for 169.89 million US dollars.

Trade exchanges between Romania and Vietnam saw a significant increase in the past 10 years (+108.7 per cent against December 31 2009), with exports increasing by 164 per cent and imports doubling.